Tom Hood.

Charles , it is you . I have read them over again , and I understand why you have auon'd the book . The puns are nine in ten good , many excellent , the Newgatory transcendant ; and then the exemplum sini exemplo of a volume of personalities

and extemporaneities , without a single line that could inflict the infinitisimal of an unpleasance on any man in his senses , saving and except , perhaps , in the envy addled brain of the despiser of your lays . If not a triumph over himit isat least

, , , an ovation . Then , moreover , and besides to speak with becoming modest y , excepting my own self , who is there but you who could write the musical lines and stanzas that are intermixed . " On the 5 th May 1824 Mr . Hood

, , married Miss Reynolds . The match was , it appears , not entirely approved of by her family ; it was certainly an imprudent one , but the attachment was evidently strong and genuine on both sides .

Their daughter , the author of the memorials , says : — " In spite of all the sickness and sorrow that formed the greatest portion of the after part of their lives , the union was a happy one . My mother was a woman of cultivated

mind and literary tastes , and well suited to him as a companion . He had such confidence in her judgment , that he read and re-read , and corrected with her all he wrote . Many of his articles were first dictated to herand her ready memory

, supplied him with his references and quotations . He frequently dictated the firstdraftof his articles , although they were always finally copied out in his peculiarly , clear , neat writing , which was so legible and goodthat it was once or twice begged

, by printers to teach their compositors a first and easy lesson in reading handwriting . The poem ' I love thee , ' was written at this time .

What woman would not have been flattered by such verses . In truth , she was a literary helpmate , and all through their wedded life he was her lover as much as her husband . Would that the same could be said of all great literary men . His son , in the preface to the Memorials , thus speaks of Mrs . Hood : —

"My mother was a fitting companion for such a husband . She shared his troubles and soothed his sorrow , and was so much a part of his very existence , that latterly he could hardly bear her out of his sight , or write when she was not by

him . We have been frequently obliged to omit large portions of his letters to herit would have been sacrilege to alter them , —and we did not feel it right to publish what was intended for her eyes alone : the tender epithets and the love

talk , so fond and yet so true . I quote here one passage as a sample of those which occur so frequently in the letters : — '' I never was anything , dearest , till I knew you , and I have been a better , happierand more prosperous man ever

, since . Lay by that truth in lavender , sweetest , and remind me of it when I fail . I am writing warmly and fondly , but not without good cause . "First your own affectionate letter lately received—next the remembrances of our

dear children , pledges , what darling ones , of our old familiar love . Then a delicious impulse to pour out the overflowings of my heart into yours ; and last , not least , the knowledge that your dear eyes will read what my hand is now writing . Perhaps there is an afterthought ,

that , whatever may befall me , the wife of my bosom will have this acknowledgment of her tenderness , worth , excellence , all that is wifely or womauly from my pen . '" Where a union such as this exists—and

I doubt not there are many such amongst the readers of the MASONIC MAGAZINEit makes a little heaven on earth . . Of late years their daughter says their mother ' s time and thoughts were entirely devoted to him , and he became restlessand almost seemed unable to write

, unless she were near . The first few years of their life was the most unclouded . The young couple resided for some years in Robert St ., Adelp hi . Here was born their first child , which , to their great griefscarcely survived its

, birth . In looking over some old papers , Miss Hood found , she says , a few tiny curls of golden hair , as soft as the finest silk , wrapped in a yellow and time-worn paper , and inscribed in her father ' s handwriting—